Cooling joint width and secondary mineral infilling characteristics in four Grande Ronde Basalt flows at the Hanford Site, Washington

Widths were measured and percentages of secondary mineral infilling types were estimated 3194 cooling joints in basalt core of the Rocky Coulee, Cohassett, McCoy Canyon, and Umtanum basalt flows. The core was from core holes RRL-2, RRL-6, RRL-14, and DC-16 on the Hanford Site in Washington State. Joint width was characterized by determining the frequency distribution in each of 16 flow/core hole combination samples (4 flows by 4 core holes = 16 samples) and comparing the distributions between intraflow structures, between basalt flows, and between core holes. Joint infilling was characterized by determining the percentage of joints with each secondary mineral type present and then comparing flows and comparing intraflow instructures. Basalt flows, intraflow structures, and core holes cannot be differentiated consistently on the basis of joint width. There is only one population of widths that can be characterized by a log-normal distribution, an arithmetic mean of 0. 23 mm(9.0E-04in.), and a standard deviation of 0.49 mm (1.9E-03in.). Clay is the predominant infilling type followed by silica and zeolite. For example, 98.1% of the randomly selected joints from the Cohassett flow are filled predominately with clay, 6.5% have zeolite predominating, and 4.0% have silica predominating. Only 19(0.6%) of the 3194 joints measured have observable void space. Basalt flows and intraflow structures cannot be differentiated on the basis joint infilling types, except for the Umtanum entablature. Joint width and infilling types are correlated, and secondary minerals fill basalt cooling joints in a particular sequence